Hong Kong public universities agree to return more funding if asked

Hong Kong’s eight public universities have promised to return more recurrent funding allocated to them if asked by the government within the next three academic years, as part of an agreement which also requires them to align the city’s higher education with national development.

In new documents signed with their funding body, the universities also agreed that the government had the right to reduce the amount of their regular funding allocation if they failed to meet their commitments or had any major deficiency in institutional governance.

The University Grants Committee (UGC), a government advisory body that allocates funding for higher education institutions, uploaded the accountability agreements it signed in June with each institution.

The government revealed in its budget in February that, in an unprecedented move, the eight universities would be asked to return HK$4 billion (US$509.6 million) they had amassed in their reserves. Earlier, university chiefs had indicated a willingness to do so.

Under the budget, the government will cut funding to the eight universities to HK$68.1 billion in the coming three academic years, falling short by about 4 per cent of the HK$70.9 billion proposed by the UGC.

The new clauses specified that the government would not only be allowed to claw back the money, but also exert fuller control of the funding granted to the universities.